ORONO, Maine — The Hull City Tigers are much better known in that northeast English city of 256,100 than the Hull Stingrays.
The Tigers play in the prestigious Barclay’s Premier League, England’s top professional soccer league and one of the world’s best leagues.
The Stingrays are a hockey team and play in the Elite Ice Hockey League that involves teams from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales as well as England.
Jack Musil’s father, Jan, used to take him to Stingrays games and that is where he fell in love with hockey.
“It was only 10 minutes away from my house. I couldn’t get enough of it,” said Musil, who is a freshman on the University of Maine’s hockey team and is the first Englishman to don the Black Bear colors.
Former Bear forward Colin Shields (2001-2004) was from Scotland.
The pro teams in Great Britain have junior systems affiliated with them so Musil grew up playing in the Hull program.
But when players reach the mid-teenage years, Musil said “there aren’t a lot of options.”
That led him to make the tough decision to leave home for a prep school in Cornwall, Ontario, the Ontario Hockey Academy.
“I had just turned 16. But, one day, I just decided ‘Yeah, I’m going to go for it and see where it takes me,” said the 21-year-old Musil.
He wound up captaining the team and eventually left to play junior hockey in Florida and then for the Waterville Valley, New Hampshire-based New England Wolves of the Eastern Hockey League where he led the team in virtually every offensive category a year ago with 47 goals, 54 assists, 101 points, 12 power-play goals and eight game-winners.
He admitted that moving to Canada from England was a challenge.
“It was a big change. It was a different culture. But once I got ahold of it, I loved it,” said Musil, who has continued to enjoy living in North America and is realizing a dream by attending Maine.
“I always wanted to get an education but I didn’t know where,” said Musil, a forward who played for the Great Britain Under-20 teams at the 2012 and 2013 World Junior Division 1A and 1B championships in Germany and Ukraine.
He has observed that the landscape and the weather in Maine is similar to England and he is looking forward to his first game in a Maine uniform.
“I’ve never played in front of such a big crowd and in such an atmosphere. It’s going to be an amazing experience,” said Musil.
When asked if he is homesick, Musil said, “To be honest, I’m so busy I haven’t had a chance to think about it.” He said his parents are hopefully coming to visit him in February.
Musil is one of eight freshmen on the Black Bear roster.
As in years past, the freshmen spent most of August in Orono taking online classes and getting familiar with the campus, the surroundings and each other while staying in a dormitory.
The only freshman who wasn’t in Orono was goalie Nik Nugnes and that was because he came to Maine last year and spent the second semester with the team.
The other freshme n are forwards Liam Pecararo, Nolan Vesey and Cedric Lacroix along with defensemen Mark Hamilton and Malcolm Hayes and goalie Sean Romeo.
Musil and the other freshmen said the month they spent together was valuable.
The worked out together voluntarily four days a week, went out to dinner and did things like play Xbox and Frisbee.
“The first couple of days were awkward because we didn’t know each other but we got so close, so fast. It’s going to help us this year,” said Romeo.
“We really bonded and became good friends,” said Hamilton.
Lacroix said they pushed each other during workouts and it has produced significant improvement in their conditioning.
He added that learning the campus and where their classes are enabled them to avoid the awkwardness of having to “carry a map” to find them once school began.
“Being here for four weeks was essential,” said Lacroix. “The weather was phenomenal and we took advantage of it. It was a good month.”
Maine head coach Red Gendron praised former coach Tim Whitehead for implementing the freshman orientation month.
“There’s no question that it helps. It gives the freshmen a comfort level. It can be stressful going around campus trying to find your classes and then having to come to practice,” he said.